Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-02-23
GRANDMOTHER MONEY.


"Bless and save us, mother, what
be We dom ?" demanded Farmer Mar
tin in great amazement, as he came In
at the kitchen door for a jug OF mo-
lasses and water.
"I'm a cleanip' house." said Mrs.
Martin.
If Mrs. Hosea Martin had been 60
ing to masquerade party she could
scarcely have disguised herself more
Systematically. Her head was tied up
in O. rolIer-towel, whose ends escaping
behind, "streamed like meteor to
the troubled air." her portly figure
was encased in g. coarse working
apron, her skirts were pinned up and
her sleeves rolled high above the ell
bow.
"Didn't know ye cakelated to COM
mence to-day" said the farmer.
"Well, didn't exactly" owned the
wife. s'But the minute your mother
made up her mind she'd have the
horse and wagon and GO over to Dea-
con Trudge's widows to spend the
day, I made up my mind to begin
house cleanin'. You see, Hosea, you
know yourself, that Mother Martin is
pleasant old lady, and I set deal
of store by her, but she can't bear to
have nothing disturbed, and them files
of old papers up garrett, and heaps of
rusty tins and old bottles down cellar,
and the broken crockery back of the
pantry door that she alway says she's
going to mend when she gets time, and
the barrels of rags in the storercom
-. - 80 @o% a 10 >E
leisure"
"What be We goin' to do with
them?" asked Farmer Martin. as his
wife paused to draw a long, despairing
breath.
"They're gone," said Mrs. Martin,
with roguish twinkle in her eye.
"Gone where?
matilda sold the rags to q rag
man before grandma's wagon was out
of sight, said the enterprising matron.
'"The papers Elder Boley gave me SIS
for, because they dated clear back to
President Zach. Taylor's times, an
he said they'd be curiosity for the
young mems reading room. Much of
curiosity, indeed And the crockery
and the old tin cans and the bottles
as amt good for nothin' under crea-
ton, l give Bill Belts quarter to
take 'em down to the old we'll by the
stone fence and fling 'em all in"
"What!" cried Mr.. Martin. "Fillin'
up my old well, Ell? Where be I
goin' to water the cattle we s'pose ?"
"It amt but a little further to the
brook" said Mrs. Martin, who was
one of those busting, authoritative
females, who are a law unto them
selves. "And that well amt safe,
Never was, since the curb rotted
away
tsMany a gourd-shell OF pure cold
water I've drunk there when the old
house stood close by under the but
ternut tree" said the farmer, with q
sigh. Galore We pulled it down and
built the new one"
"Well, We won't never drink no
more" said Mrs. Martin. "The wa
ter's most all run out since we dug the
new well down here, and I've had the
children carrying cobblestones there
all the spring, at q penny g.
hundred, to get the huckleberry past
ure cleared out a little. And now the
old truck has gone top of it-and q
good radiance to two bad things at
once, says
Mr.. Martin groaned.
"Well, mother" said he, "you al
ways did have your own way, and you
always will, I s'pose. But what both
ers me is-what will grandma say?"
81 don't s'pose she'll be pleased, !"
said Mrs. Martin, stirring vigorously
at pail of whitewash. "But it's
done, and it can't be undone, and,
after all, what is the use of turning
ones house into magpie's nest?"
The farmer filed up his jug and re-
treated to the remotest Businesses of
the timothy meadow, resolved to be
as far as possible out OF the way when
the old lady came home.
"Hetty likes her own way" said he,
s'and SO does mother, and when flint
and steel come together there's most
generally fire."
But poor Mother Martin came home
in quite different fashion from what
they expected. Struck down with
apoplexy at the neighbours house, she
was carried back across her own
threshold-dead.
And Mrs. Martin, who, in spite of
her peculiarities, was fond of her
mother-in law, wept real tears of gen.
uine grief, and audibly rejoiced that
grandma had never known about sell
ing of the old papers and the filling up
of the ancient well.